People of the Resurrection - Mary Magdalene

Have you ever run into someone or seen someone, who when you saw them your realized that the had no business being where there?  You just looked at them and you knew they seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There’s something about them that makes you immediately realize that they had no business being where they were. 

Now, in our scripture passage this morning we have a picture of a young lady who, in all reality had no business being where she was on Easter morning. John 20:1-18 (NKJV)

People of the Resurrection - The Roman Centurion

His name, church tradition tells us, was Longinus.  We do not really know much about him except that he was an elite fighting man in the greatest army the world had known up until that time; a military force that had swept all of the known world before them; they were unstoppable and unbeatable.  He was a Centurion; an officer we identify as a captain, for he commanded a company size force of 100 Roman soldiers; a Centuria.

Because he belonged to the Roman Empire’s fighting elite, as a Centurion he was trained to value power and brute force, and to obey absolutely those in authority over him while believing in the complete suppression of any enemies of Rome by any means necessary. He would not have been known for his compassion, but rather brutality and strength, and you can be sure that he was totally uninterested in the rantings of a wandering preacher who had stirred up the populace in an alarming way.  So much so, that he could easily watch without emotion as that preacher was put to death in the slow, incredibly painful way reserved for criminals who were not citizens of Rome.  This is the man; a soldier's soldier.

You Simply Cannot Close the Church!

Sunday Morning, March 22, 2020

Today, this very morning, as we come to worship let us come together and dare to worship Him in Spirit and Truth.  For truly, There is never a time we, as believer cease to worship and serve God.  It is not reserved to a specific place or time; not confined to a geographic location or chronological designation.  It is a call to and a promise that we Can be the Church.

Today, in the midst of a Pandemic, God has issued a clarion call to simply Be the Church, wherever you find yourself today and in the days to come.  Worship Him in Spirit and Truth! 

People of the Resurrection - Simon of Cyrene

Sunday Morning, March 29, 2020

People make up and inhabit the story of the Resurrection, for it is much more than a point in history or a theological treatise; it is a story of people and what happened in their lives on that day of days, and the days leading up to that moment.  As a matter of fact, they are the very fabric of the story; the threads that give it substance and meaning.  And I want to introduce to you this morning one of those.  His Name is Simply Simon, and he come from a place called Cyrene.